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Monday, 7 May 2012

My 1970's

.. And then these blokes would dress up and paint their faces black with big white lips.."
My daughter looked astounded." you mean like "Hello Dave?"
Yes I mean like Hello Dave. - me
This was Saturday night entertainment? - her, incredulous
Nodding - me

I give you the black and white minstrel show.

This was the TV of my youth along with Abbott & Costello, Laurel & Hardy, numerous Ginger Rodgers and Fred Astaire movies, wrestling with Big Daddy, Mick McManus and latterly Giant Haystacks, not forgetting the Lone Ranger and a large amount of westerns too. When Saturday morning Swap Shop came on we were saved. but even better I think the TV was so horrendous that you felt compelled to turn it off and go do something less boring instead.
I can remember the utter joy of the Muppets and fear the music of News at Ten and Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected brought on me.The public announcements, the ads about not playing near water and boys falling off tractors in LUFC scarves & northern accents. Not forgetting the Green Cross Code ads. So yeah I know how to cross the road.

Holidays were always staycations and towelling t shirts seemed a necessity along with attractive headscarves (not.) Post holiday you would write to your new pen pal a few times until you got bored of writing and forgot what it was you had in common in the first place as opposed to wapping them straight onto facebook and then looking on their life from the sidelines thinking what on earth did I see in them?

Chilling seemed to involve climbing trees, riding on my bike, building dens, rushing out to the ice cream van or chipping in to buy loads of space dust. Homework was always done and you always did what you parents said. I'm beginning to feel nostalgic for a time where I also seemed to bored a lot too.

All of this was probably done whilst I was attired in a brown stripy tank top over a shirt with very long lapels and flared jeans and a bad haircut eating Spangles. And yes we did seem to spend a lot of time in photo booths then, you have instagram now!

The accompanying theme tune would have been 10cc or Carly Simon which if I remember rightly were faves of mums.

8 comments:

Very similar for me. I went through my teens in the 70s and wore tank tops and flares, hot pants and platform shoes. TV was only worth it for Top of the Pops - everyone wanted to be Pans People. I spent most of my time bunking off school and getting the bus to Portobello Road Market or the Biba Shop on Kensington High Street or Chelsea Girl for my clothes and went to bed every night with those sponge hair curlers in. Those were the days, thanks for reminding me!

I was 17 in 1971....I wore the clothes, danced to the tunes, wore the makeup, had my first serious boyfriend and lost my virginity and tried really hard to be 'grown up'......yet I didn't realise that I was slim and not too bad looking and was terribly lacking in confidence for most of the decade, so I have a bitter sweet memory of that time......oh if only I could go back and do it all again!

Wrestling on the telly on a Saturday lunch time! Gosh, that brings back memories! Jimmy Baby Brakes! Kendo Nagasaki! And in the evenings it would be Russ Abbott's madhouse and 3-2-1... That makes me shudder!